Quum memoranda

• 1. Introduction

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  Quum memoranda, Latin for "on that memorable day," was issued by Pope Pius VII on the 10th of June 1809. That same morning, French authorities in Rome had proclaimed Napoleon's decree incorporating the Papal States into the French Empire. Pius had hesitated before acting; only the insistence of his advisor Cardinal Pacca moved him. The brief excommunicated all those who had seized or aided in the seizure of the Church's temporal territories. Napoleon was not named in the text. By the following morning, copies were already posted on the walls of Saint Mary Major, Saint John Lateran, and Saint Peter. What had pushed the papacy to this breaking point, and what would Napoleon do in response?

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• 2. The Encroaching Empire

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  French troops arrived in Rome in February 1808, the opening move in a prolonged absorption of the Papal States. A march into Marche followed. In April of that year, Napoleon formally annexed the Church States by decree. The pope's authority in the capital was left intact. By May 1809, that restraint was gone; two more decrees had appeared. The first, signed on the 17th of May, found the pope's temporal claims "irreconcilable with the safety, tranquility, and prosperity of the Empire." This was the formal language of dispossession. The Holy See had already been weakened by more than a year of occupation; these words formalized what military force had already made plain. Pius framed his response not as an impulsive act but as a duty demanded by precedents reaching back through centuries of Church authority.

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• 3. Words of Anathema

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  "The time for clemency is over." With those words, the brief declared that Pius had reached the end of his patience. He addressed his unnamed targets as "the authors of so much evil." He argued that continued hesitation would leave him open to charges of "weakness and procrastination." Earlier popes, he noted, had excommunicated "rebellious kings and princes" for crimes less severe than those now being committed against the Church. The declaration invoked "the authority of Almighty God, and that of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul." It also drew on the holy canons, the Apostolical constitutions, the decrees of General Councils, and specifically the Holy Council of Trent. Those covered included "authors, promoters, counsellors, or adherents" of the offenses, all stripped of any privileges previously granted by the Holy See. General Sextius Alexandre François de Miollis commanded the French garrison in Rome. The question of what to do with Pius had already reached him.

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• 4. The Prisoner of Savona

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  Brigadier-general Etienne Radet made the case that proved decisive: Rome could not be governed without a show of force. Miollis allowed the operation to proceed. In the early hours of the 6th of July 1809, French troops led by Radet entered the Quirinal Palace. It had been less than a month since Quum memoranda was issued. Pius was arrested, placed in a carriage, and taken from the city. The journey carried him first to Genoa, then to Grenoble. A large house in Savona was chosen as a suitable place of exile. He was permitted there to conduct ceremonies and receive visits from the local population. Napoleon's excommunication, still in force at that point, would follow him through years of conquest and, eventually, into exile of his own.

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• 5. Saint Helena

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  At Saint Helena, Napoleon told General Montholon that Pope Pius VII had been "an old man full of tolerance and light." He added: "Fatal circumstances embroiled our cabinets. I regret it exceedingly." Napoleon also asked for a chaplain, saying that hearing Mass would "rest my soul." Pius petitioned Britain on his behalf and sent the Abbe Vignali to the island. Napoleon's excommunication had by then been lifted, following his reconciliation with the Catholic Church. Vignali was present at Longwood House when Napoleon died on the 5th of May 1821. His posting there had required a personal petition from Pius to the British government.

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